Twitter Metrics that Maximize Word of Mouth Marketing

Tools to improve your Twitter influence 

Twitter is a really great tool for your business. But how do you know how effective your business Twitter account is? There are programs called metrics that you can use in order to know how your word of mouth marketing is doing on Twitter. Below you will find some of the most effective metrics that you can use.

Your influence on Twitter

Even though you may have a large number of followers on Twitter, what is more important is how influential you are. Services such as PeerIndex and Klout can tell you the amount of influence you have over your Twitter followers. 

These kinds of services will generally provide you with a number out of either 10 or even 100. This is going to indicate the level of your influence. Something else that will be more interesting though is the statistics. If you never thought of your Twitter influence before, you should think about it now.

Time Zones of Your Followers

Being informed about when your followers are awake is going to help you time your tweets so that they can be seen by the most number of people. Tweriod is a service that can pull all of the time zones of your followers from their bios on Twitter, and then tell you when it's going to be best for you to tweet based on that information. They are going to provide you with time zone graphs and these are good for calculating tweet times as well.

A second good tool for you to use is Timely. This app is really simple and it can tell you which of the last 200 tweets you wrote didn't reach their highest potential. It will also suggest different daily time zones when you can try tweeting.

Tweets Which Receive the Highest Number of Retweets

You can track the links that you put in Twitter using something called bit.ly or another service, and you will start to quickly learn what is getting retweeted and what isn’t. This can be really valuable information when you want to maximize your Twitter presence, since it can help with refining the content and style of your Tweets.

If you find that your quality content is not being retweeted frequently, use a quote or ask a relevant question.

The Interests of Followers

Knowing whether or not you're targeting the best followers is crucial for seeing high conversion and engagement rates from a Twitter account. You are able to get a fast snapshot of the interests of followers by performing a keyword analysis of their bios. This is going to show their niches. One of the best things that you can use is Foller.me . It gives you your influencers keywords that are repeated the most in a text cloud plus a whole host of other helpful information!

How you're using Twitter

You may think you know everything about the way that you're using Twitter, but this is probably not true, even if you're managing your own account. However, there is some information available about the way that you use Twitter that you may not know. What day are you tweeting the most? What time of day are you tweeting the most?

Among the best tools for graphing your use of Twitter is called TweetStats. You are able to view in chart and graph form what days, months, and hours you're tweeting the most. It also displays to you who you have replied to the most, which Tweets are retweeted more, and which interface you're using to access Twitter.

These are just a few valuable metrics that you can use when it comes to using Twitter, especially when you're pairing it with a bit of that information that is found above. You are able to use the tweet patterns to get to your audience much better based on their time zone, the people who are retweeting you, and a whole lot more. Through tweaking your habits on Twitter to much better suit your audience, you will be able to reach more people, convert a lot more clicks, and get more overall success on Twitter. Use the information above to increase the effectiveness of Twitter for your business.

Reporters and Customer Service Folks Excel in Social

Social marketing from reporters and customer service folks

What does it take to make your social networking succeed? As social networking grows with the addition of new sites and applications, we strive to keep up with them all and handle them effectively. To do this, we must master a certain skill-set that encourages more than calculations, it encourages communication.

There are several key elements to creating a successful social network, and there are some particular professions that already host such needed elements. Have you ever considered what a reporter does? They constantly interact with people and deliver the answers that people seek. Often, they are renowned for asking the right questions to encourage future interaction with their audience. 

Then there are those of the customer service profession. These people understand what it means to interact with an individual and their specific needs. Though they provide answers and facts, they do so in a manner that is specific to the person. The ability to be good with people plays an essential role in how your business appears to your audience. 

Basically, those with customer service or even a reporter’s background can influence your abilities as a good social media manager. While these professions may not have been specifically engaged in, these techniques and practices are essential to social networking success.

Serving your customers

Social sites have become one of the primary sources for customer service. Not only do they provide facts and information, they are a direct window to your audience. Here, you can discuss and communicate with an individual directly. This should be seen as your chance to befriend your audience in a social way. To do this, you must understand that social media isn’t just about speaking, it is about listening as well.

This is something that is often overlooked by social networkers because while you may be speaking to a wide audience, you must also be able to converse with an individual person. This means that you can’t limit yourself to disclosing just the facts, you have to understand how to handle an individual and address their specific needs. You must speak to them in the right language, so you don’t want to indulge in jargon or otherwise lose their attention. Above all, you never want to sound like a pre-recorded message.

This often leads to the simple question: Can you tell your story? It’s not just about disclosing your history; it’s about being able to communicate with someone else. Social networking is more than calculations, it’s about being able to engage the audience properly and respond to individuals and specific needs by relating to them on a personal level. It’s all about being able to listen AND respond effectively so that both you and your customer can develop your own story together. 

What does it take to stimulate conversation?

This brings us to the abilities of a reporter. This particular profession not only focuses on being able to find information, but present it in a manner that will appeal to their audience in more ways than one. Every business provides facts about themselves, but there are facts in general which are appealing. Reporters find the scoop, they find ways to relate “hot topics” with the message they want to deliver. 

So ask yourself if you can serve your social networking needs in an engaging style. Those in customer service can appeal to the needs of individuals, while the reporter can create conversation amongst individuals. A reporter is able to stimulate personal word of mouth marketing strategies through their methods because they create discussion. 

Then there is the fact that being a reporter can help understand what leads to pursue. Reporters target “hot” leads and evade cold trails. This is very effective when you must focus on what is truly important. Time is always precious, which means that readers and listeners will only give their attention to that which is important to them. A reporter understands what is important and presents it to their audience. 

For those within the social world, being able to write and create quality content that will appeal to your audience is crucial to success. A social networker should see themselves as a reporter whose job is to provide what the audience desires to create debate and conversation. 

The characteristics of these two professions are essential to a social marketing strategy. While not everyone has been a reporter or in charge of customer service, the elements of these professions are something that every social marketing manager must apply and practice to properly engage their audience and ensure their social networking succeeds.

Using Social to Find Products

Benefits of social marketing

Most businesses are missing out when it comes to potential impressions, sales and interactions because they are yet to leverage the social media power on the sites of their businesses. Websites and the channels for social media have a seamless working relationship which has seen many succeed in promoting their online brand. 

To be able to successfully integrate social media to your business website, then the following points should be considered: 

• Do you have visible buttons for social media included in your website? 
• Do the locations of these buttons make sense for effectively integrating social media?
• Make sure your social buttons are updated, i.e., be on the-know as to which social site is "calling the shots" at the moment.
• Make sure that you include a button to "share". This will enable your clients to share information about your services and products to their social media contacts.
• Use analytics so that you will be able to know how many people use the buttons you’ve placed for social media. If you find that the result is underwhelming, then chances are your buttons are not conveniently located.

Why use social media?

Now that you have had your business and social media sites integrated, you are off to a great start. The next step is to know how you can use social to find products for your business. These sites are a great source of information. You can get to create a blog on your site where various topics will be discussed especially on the products and services you provide. Such a blog will allow you to know which products are favored by your customers and potential customers; as well as know which ones are not. 

The great thing about social sites is that you can have a sneak peak of what gives your competitors a cutting edge without their knowledge. This will enable you to up (or even better) the products and services provided by them, which may lead their customers to re-locate from their businesses to yours. 

Social media sites also allow you to engage in online conversations with various people so that you get to know what they think of your business and the services provided. This will give you better insight as to what needs changing and what does not. 

Social media also gives you a wide selection option when it comes to the products and services your business offers. Thanks to the wide connections created by social media, you can now get products from various parts of the world and all by just the click of a button. And by doing so, you are able to provide a variety of products and services to your customers…keeping you always at the forefront.

Higher Google Results for Your Personal Brand

Higher Google results for personal branding

At one point or another, most of us have tried to Google our brand… and chances are that the results were less than pleasing. This makes sense considering there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people out there trying to promote their own unique brands with the help of search engines. Fortunately, there are ways to create results in order to make your brand appear higher up on Google search results and here is a little guide on how to implement them.

Understand Google’s Power

To start things off, it is important to understand the kind of power Google has and how people see you through it. It should be said that every single day, more than a billion names or brands are searched on Google by people from all over the world. Another interesting fact states that about 94% of people who make searches on Google don't go beyond the first page of results. This means that if you are to make it with the help of search engine rankings, you will have to dominate on the first page.

Dominating the first page is easier than it sounds, considering that only 2% of people actually own the first page of Google; only 50% own their first result, a quarter of pages have absolutely no positive content whatsoever to help themselves, with 15% of Google results on the first page having at least one negative result that lowers their reputation. To put it in other words, many first pages are still up for the taking with Google search rankings.

Which Networks

So how exactly should you work on increasing your reputation? Well, social media profiles are an excellent way to do that, especially with Facebook having just reached the billion user mark recently. Not all profiles will give you the same kind of boost. For starters, the most beneficial one is Linkedln, ranking higher than all other networks and website builders. You can also use Facebook  and Twitter as they have a large number of users themselves. As far as blogging goes, you should focus on making WordPress profiles; they rank much higher than even Tumblr and Blogger. Also, as surprising as it may seem, a profile on Vimeo ranks higher with search engines than a YouTube profile. Yet YouTube is by far the powerhouse that can deliver the reach and frequency of your message.  If you are into hosting pictures, then Flickr should be your only choice as it is the only picture hosting website that appears within the first two pages of Google.

Unfortunately, simply creating a run-of-the-mill profile isn't enough. You need to use a service such as BrandYourself which works by first having you submit content about your personal brand. Then, you are provided with tools you can use to make sure that your links are friendly for the search engines. Their tools are going to analyze your profiles and provide you with "boost steps" to increase your positive pages’ ranks. Finally, you are going to receive alerts whenever anything happens to your profiles, allowing you to constantly stay on top of your business. You can even find the service to find out who is Googling your brand and when!

How Can Great Content be Created

Content creation for your personal branding

Content generation and content distribution are some of the phrases that you will come across when you start building your own business. You will also often hear the term, "content is king". When you’re focusing on building great products and services, you may wonder what exactly is so important about having good content and who can create it.

You may be aware of the crucial role that a website, Facebook, and Twitter page can play in ensuring your brand’s exposure. You can enhance your brand’s ranking in search engines by adding relevant and intuitive content to your website and social media accounts. When you do that, your website will not only be a place where your customers will go to in order to see your products or services, it will also be a place where potential customers will go to for valuable information.

To illustrate the point better, let us assume that you want to buy a kayak and that you have come across a couple of different websites. In one website, you see different models of kayaks along with their prices. However, a second website has that and a blog written by the founder of the company giving beginners tips in kayaking. It also has links to some of the best kayaking destinations and videos showing helpful tips such as what to do when your kayak overturns. Though both websites provide the information you were initially looking for, the content in the second website makes it much more attractive and is more likely to gain new customers.

It is a fact that incorporating as much information as possible into your website will not provide the intended benefits. The content that you provide must have value to the visitors of your website. Here are five simple ways of finding great content for your brand:

1. Provide how-to information

You may have extensive knowledge about your products as well as your industry. However, your target audience is not likely to have the same in-depth knowledge. This presents you with an opportunity to help them. Starting with the basics, you can include information on how to do many things. To give you an example, if you are a maker of online applications, you can offer tips that your audience can understand as to how they can become successful through a distance learning program. You can make use of a blog post, a video presentation or articles to convey the information to your audience. Whatever the method that you adopt, it must be simple, light, easy to read and informative.

2. Provide inside information

Give people the feeling that they have the privilege of getting insider information when they go to your website. They will absolutely love it. The information that you add or update on a daily basis may not be exciting to you, but your audience may be looking forward to it. To give you an idea as to what you can do to give them this feeling, here is an illustration. Assume that you are at a trade show and identifying suppliers for your upcoming product. You can take a few pictures of the fair and make it available in your website. Such information sharing will not only provide greater access to your brand, but also add a human touch.

3. Have a Founder's Column

Customers often want to get to know the founders of a company better as it helps them identify better with the company. As the founder, you must have a presence on your website and contribute to your column regularly. Founder's blogs are available in the websites of many companies. The topics in these blogs include the latest information on trends in their field of operation, personal success stories, etc. This is not only an opportunity to provide unique and enticing content, but it’s also great for public relation efforts and helps build customer loyalty to your brand.

4. Facility for interaction

People like interacting with others and also the brand they adore. This is one of the major reasons why social media is so popular. It is therefore important that you have the facility for regular interactions with the audience. You can arrange for contests on a weekly basis, rope in guest bloggers and encourage your audience to share relevant videos, photos, thoughts, etc. You will have a growing community around your brand even before you realize it. You will also have a great archive of content.


5. Take charge

You may think that all the content has to be created by you. But that is not correct. You can share an article or any content related to your industry or brand that you happen to come across. You should not reproduce the articles that you see on websites without prior permission. However, you can always share a link or an excerpt. It is even better if you add your own opinion. This is a great way of making your audience know about your connections outside your business. This adds to your credibility and also helps to stay ahead of the competition.

As you strive to educate, inspire and establish a connection with your audience, you should keep in view the fact that your content is an extension of your brand. The content must be kept relevant. It is also important to ensure that words are not spelled wrong and the content is always grammatically correct. You want to give the impression that your company is professional, not careless.

Pinterest and Your Business

Some questions to consider before taking your brand to Pinterest:

1.What are some of the best ways you've seen small businesses use Pinterest?
2. Do we know if Pinners are purchasing?
3. What are some best practices.

Best Pinterest Practices for Businesses

1. Include your website, facebook page, twitter on your Pinterest profile
2. Watermark all photos
3. Put contact info on all photos
4. Highlight Your Team
5. Think Lifestyle; Not Product

Learn more about Maria Elena Duron and how she can help you use Pinterest and other social media sites to promote your personal brand or small business. For more information, you can visit Buzz2Bucks.

Social Marketing Comments Can Be Wonderful Reviews for Your Business

Word of mouth marketing and taking your business online

Word of mouth marketing has now moved into the digital age thanks to the internet and, in particular, social media websites such as Facebook. The impact for small businesses is clear, because it is now a means by which individual consumer reviews can be seen by thousands of people rather than only close friends, thereby leading to even more exposure. This in turn, can lead to an increase in new customers or clients if the reviews are positive. But how can a business really take advantage of this type of marketing?

Online reviews on the rise

Prior to discussing how a business can take advantage, it is perhaps best to quickly mention how leaving reviews online for businesses has really taken off in recent years. People have been spending more and more time on sites such as Facebook and using it to arrange meetings with friends and comment on numerous things. But even review sites such as Yelp now give people the option of signing in via their Facebook login details prior to posting reviews. This then creates a network of comments online and you will also find that search engines such as Google give more weight to these comments. What this then means is that when people search for businesses online, these links often appear higher up in the results pages and people find the businesses without the businesses having to do anything themselves.

The outcome of this is that even if they leave a comment on a different site, it can appear on their Facebook page or other social media networks, and then be seen by their friends who will of course be more willing to believe whatever comments they post rather than a complete stranger. This can be a wonderful opportunity for businesses, but only if they know how to take advantage of it. It is important that comments are believable because a number of reviews on various sites are faked either by the company itself or through hiring people to post them. This adds a certain degree of uncertainty to them, which in turn can affect the business, but this approach does away with any skepticism.

Take advantage of the visibility of social media

Due to these comments, it therefore makes sense for a business to make sure they have a presence on various social media sites to allow people who are reading these comments to find them more easily. A profile on these networks should be seen as a major advertising opportunity, which is why the profile needs to be complete and offer as much information as a potential customer would need to know prior to buying products or using services. A profile or business page can then be used to communicate with customers both new and old with various comments stating how wonderful they are, displayed for all to see. Interaction can also take place with customers when they do not have a good experience, which can then still be turned into positive for the business by encouraging them to try again.

A business should also look at openly encouraging their customers or clients to leave these comments either on the page for the business or their own personal one. This then opens up the possibility of their friends being able to ask them questions about the business instead of reading reviews by people who are pretty much anonymous. This can be done by promoting the various profiles to current customers as well as marketing it directly to people either in the local area or those who would be most likely to use the services or products.

By actively marketing a social media profile, which costs nothing to the business, it means their name becomes better known amongst the target market. Reviews and comments that are posted on the business page can then be picked up by a large number of potential customers who will be interested in discovering what other people have to say. This type of marketing has been responsible for giving business to companies more than any other type of advertising.

Encourage your customers to tell their friends all about their experiences with your products or services via social media to help boost your profile. Word of mouth marketing is still the most effective form of advertising available, but with it having moved into the digital age, you need to take full advantage because you can benefit from it in the long run.

Add Variety to Social Marketing With Tout

Add variety to your social marketing with Tout

Let's face it, the business world is far different than what it was a decade ago, let alone before that. Today, we cannot function without adapting our company an online presence, bringing business to a whole new level of clientele.

Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others, have become some of the greatest ways to promote businesses online. One new social network, called TOUT, has taken online social marketing to a whole new level. Find out how!

What is Tout?

TOUT was actually initially launched as a free iPhone application in mid-April. What Tout does is it allows users to record a 15 second video from their iPhones, and then easily post it to their Twitter or Facebook accounts. While being a third party application, the video also gets posted on the user's personal TOUT account at the TOUT website page.

Several well-known personalities, like Shaquille O'neal and Mitt Romney, use TOUT to express updates, allowing their followers to watch them, instead of just reading their Twitter or Facebook statuses.

Ever since its launch, TOUT has been gaining popularity, today being used by hundreds of thousands.  It’s grown into a major factor and a big opportunity for many businesses to promote their brands. Much like what Instagram did for photos, Tout does for short videos.  Business owners, who had to promote their businesses in the past via status updates, can now promote their businesses via 15 second video updates, which would reach thousands of their followers.

How you can you use it for your small business?

TOUT is of great use to small business owners because visual content is more noticed by potential consumers. Just think about it, how many times do businesses try to promote their current prices, deals and products via videos? On top of that, it’s easy and fast without a huge cost or production investment. This is HUGE for small businesses, allowing them to advertise greatly without spending a fortune!

Not only is it easy to use, TOUT makes reaching potential customers as easy as a Facebook post.  Businesses are able to save on monthly advertising bills, allowing them to focus their budget on improving the product itself.

TOUT is without a doubt a whole new social marketing experience. With hundreds of people researching this new engaging market and releasing tutorials and e-books on how to make use of it, TOUT is definitely knocking on Facebook and Twitter's backdoors, putting a whole lot of pressure on their powerhouse competitors. So, got a small business and looking to promote it in an easy, fast, and affordable way? Then try TOUT!

Gaming and Couponing Your Brand

Gamification as part of your social marketing strategy

Companies and small businesses today have a lot of options when it comes to marketing and promoting their brand. It’s not just about going door to door, doing TV and radio advertising campaigns, or distributing fliers at your local grocery store. Now you have various other options such as creating a website, starting a blog, making a page in different social networking sites, and so on. It’s about visibility and the Internet is currently the place where most people spend a lot of their time.

There are so many ways you can promote your brand on the web. There’s Facebook and Twitter, and the fast growing site-  Pinterest. There’s LinkedIn, there’s Google+, and don’t forget SEO to ensure that you dominate the search engines. You can create websites, blogs, and join popular article sites such as EzineArticles. You can utilize well-placed online ads that will (hopefully) get clicked on. And you can use popular tools such as gaming and couponing in order to entice customers to buy from you or obtain the services you’re offering.

Games existed offline first

Though online gaming may sound a bit childish to you, many people continue to enjoy online games, even middle aged adults. Games are a great way to kick back, relax, and just let yourself forget about everything even for a little while. It’s also an excellent way to have fun, to challenge yourself, to compete against others, and even to bond with people. Games and contests are a great way to promote your brand. After all, who wouldn’t want to win in a contest?

Couponing – can be good and bad

Couponing has also become extremely popular among the public today. With the advent of Groupon and FourSquare, everyone now enjoys looking for the best deals when it comes to brands they love as well as the brands they want to try out. It’s a great way to gain exposure for your brand, as many people simply can’t resist a good deal. There’s just something irresistible about getting 50% off a new restaurant, or 30% off a nice dress.

As a small business owner, if you’re looking into using gaming and couponing in marketing your brand, then you should definitely consider using Fanplayr. Fanplayr.com gives you the ability to add coupons and offer gamification in your social marketing mix. It offers an excellent and innovative way to attract and engage your customers.

FanPlayr – A resource for you

Social marketing has quickly become the most popular way of promoting your brand. Everything has become “social” these days, as more and more people use social networking sites to with their friends, play games, use apps, connect with their favorite brands, and so on.

Fanplayr provides you the ability to engage with your audience through gamification and couponing across different platforms. And the best part is, you don’t have to be a programmer or developer to start creating your own gaming and couponing campaign. In less than 15 minutes, you can set up a coupon game that you could place on your website, include in your newsletter, share on Facebook, and offer on mobile. It’s that simple.

Fanplayr also recently announced that it has entered into partnership with Ifeelgoods so it can bring Facebook credits to “smart and targeted” social offers and coupons. This empowers Magenta merchants all over the world by being able to benefit from low-cost Facebook credits in order to get better returns on their offers and coupons.

Feeling rewarded and engaged

Your brand promotion and messaging can become boring if you don’t mix it up, which is why using gaming and couponing can definitely capture your customer’s attention. Both small businesses and large companies can utilize this feature in order to engage and connect with consumers better. Customers feel rewarded when they play the game and then win the prize of a coupon that they can redeem when they like.

When it comes to social marketing, it’s really about finding the best ways to enhance your brand and engage with your consumers. Since there are so many other brands that offer the same or similar products or services, it’s vital for you to stand out and differentiate yourself by offering fun and unique things to your customers.

Fanplayr in partnership with Ifeelgoods definitely offers some interesting options for small business owners who want to offer their customers something new. Don’t limit yourself to traditional marketing campaigns that may end up boring your customers. Add new and interesting offers, such as gaming and couponing to connect with them further.

Author:

Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm. She helps create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand. Maria Duron is co-founder  and moderator of #brandchat - a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers.

Your Personal Brand is Always On

Personal branding even while on vacation

Personal branding has become essential in our changing world. It’s because the competition today is incredibly fierce – you really have to ensure that you stand out from the crowd and that you are invaluable in the current market. You can’t let your knowledge and skills get stagnant, or else you’ll be left behind, forgotten and obsolete.

Wherever you are – whether you’re at work, on a meeting, eating out with friends, even on vacation – remember that your personal brand is always on. Everything you do says something about you, Don't forget that you’re always being assessed and evaluated by the people around you.

We all need some time off, some time for ourselves. We get exhausted from all our work and we get burned out. When this happens we really need some time to relax and build ourselves up again. This is why many people enjoy taking time off to have some vacation – it’s a way to clear our minds from all the problems and troubles at work, and to spend time with our family and friends.

Some people think that going on vacation is something private and does not affect our personal branding, but they are wrong. even what we do on our vacation tells something about us.

Vacations enhance personal brands

Though many may doubt this, our vacations actually enhance our personal brands at work. What you do during vacation says a lot about you, and affects the perceptions of your boss, colleagues, clients and customers.

People form opinions about you based on what you say and what you do. If you go on a family trip with your loved ones, people may see you as a family person – nice and dependable. Or if you like exploring new places and doing new things such as mountain climbing during vacation, people may view you as someone who’s adventurous and willing to take risks. Or maybe you enjoy giving back, helping out at charities and shelters during vacation – people will see you as an altruistic person, someone who really wants to give back to the world.

Truly, where you go and what you do during vacation offers an insight into who you really are. It is able to enhance your personal brand, so people don’t see you as just a one-dimensional person who only concentrates on work, work and more work. You’re now a multifaceted person with different layers, interesting and unique.

Vacations help your personal brand stand out

Your vacations also help you stand out in the sea of competitors, colleagues and similar professionals. It helps people remember and recall you – you’re not just another random working colleague or employee who works well but never stands out.

Typically, the question that people will typically ask you before you go is, “Where are you going on vacation?” Then when you return they will ask you, “How was your vacation?” How you answer really helps people remember you.

Of course, if you’re the type who goes to the same place every time you go on vacation, or simply stays at home and wiles away the time watching TV, then that isn’t going to help you stand out. It may even be detrimental to your brand since people may view you as someone who resists change, and who’ll probably remain in the same position until retirement. Your vacations can make you stand out not only in a good way, but also in a bad way.

Social marketing during vacation

As a personal brand, you can actually continue to update your followers and audience even when you’re on vacation by using social media. Wherever you are, you can just log onto your account, post a quick picture or status update in order to update everyone. Staying in touch with your audience has never been so easy.

Of course, some people would consider that social marketing during vacation is a bit too much work. After all, how can you enjoy the moment when you’re busy updating your Twitter, Facebook page or blog? But for others, keeping in touch regularly with their audience is essential. For them, it’s critical that they express their life through social media, updating regularly even when on vacation.

Personal branding even on vacation

The important thing to remember is that your personal brand never goes on vacation. Even when you’re relaxing and enjoying yourself in the Caribbean Islands, remember that your personal brand is always on. Balance in life is important, so make sure that you show your boss, colleagues, clients, customers and audience that your life is balanced – you enjoy your work as well as your vacation, and consider taking advantage of your vacations to enhance your personal brand.

The Eyes Have It

LinkedIn to help establish your personal brand

If there’s one social networking site that’s essential for professionals, it’s LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world’s largest and most popular professional network, where people get to interact, connect, engage, obtain new information, find leads, hire and be hired, and more. If you’re a job seeker or a professional who isn’t on LinkedIn, then you really should consider signing up for an account now!

Having a LinkedIn profile can definitely help you land more jobs and get more clients and customers. It’s practically like having an online resume that the whole world can view – it definitely helps spread the word about your personal brand. Google even likes LinkedIn, and tends to rank it high in its search engine. With clients and hiring managers Googling you today before they hire you,  having a professional LinkedIn profile coming up in search can definitely be an advantage.

Once you’ve signed up on LinkedIn, it’s essential that you complete your profile. And one of the things you need to do in order to complete your profile is to upload a photo.

There continues to be a lot of debate whether to upload a photo or not on LinkedIn, but for many people involved in the hiring business, a professional looking photo is a must, if you want to be hired.

TheLadders recently conducted a study where they examined the eye movements of 30 professional recruiters over a 10-week period. They used an eye tracking heat map that showed the length of time that a recruiter focused on a part of your LinkedIn profile. In the study, it was discovered that recruiters spent 19% of their time looking at your profile. After devoting significant time to the profile, they then checked your current job position and your education, but very little time was spent on reading your specialties, skills, and past work experiences.

So what does this mean for you as a personal brand? Since recruiters focus a lot on your picture, it’s essential that you put up a professional looking photo on your LinkedIn profile, something that really helps you brand yourself and convince people to hire you or obtain your services.

Most people are visual creatures. When they look at a page, most people’s eyes tend to focus on the picture first before they move on to the text. Knowing this, it’s important that your LinkedIn photo shows you off to your best advantage.

You may think that putting a logo on your profile can help you with your personal branding campaign. Even though this might not be bad, most people would still prefer to interact with a real person rather than just a logo.

Having a blank profile photo is even worse than a less than best-quality photo. You may think that leaving the photo spot blank will help you to not get discriminated based on your looks, but most people really want to see what you look like before they even consider hiring you. If you have a blank profile, they may just skip looking it over and move on to the next one. They may also wonder what you’re trying to hide… Your profile may even appear suspicious to some/ After all, why is it hiding behind a blank image?

If you think about it, images are powerful when it comes to personal brand recognition. Consistently using the same image for different profiles really helps you brand and position yourself as an expert in your field.

Did you know that there are fake profiles in LinkedIn? Since it’s so easy to just sign up and create an account anyone could make an account in your name, and who would know better if it’s really you or not? This is why having a photo up can help show people that you are real. This gives your social media credibility. It really helps when it comes to the social marketing of your personal brand.

To summarize, remember that when it comes to your personal branding campaign, LinkedIn is one powerful tool. It helps show you to your best advantage, and it has Google juice so it ranks high in the search engines.

Make sure that you put up a professional looking photo that represents you well. People are highly visual – the recent study showed that people really tend to focus longer on a photo than the text that accompanies it. And having a photo really helps people recognize and remember your brand more.

Because it is so important that people recognize your personal brand on LinkedIn, take the steps that are required to keep others from thinking of you as just a random professional looking for work. Use your LinkedIn photo to show off the best you possible.

Efficient Small Business Promotion Using Pixability

Boost your personal branding with videos

As a small business owner, you may not have all the money to spend on advertising with major online advertisers, newspapers, TV and radio, or soft sell magazines. You therefore need to make use of cheap but efficient promotional alternatives to effectively reach your target audience and grow your business.

The introduction of social marketing through the social media platform is at the edge of this emerging business promotion avenue and with it, a small business owner can more easily achieve success. Apart from connecting to loved ones and friends, one thing people are most crazy about on social media is sharing, viewing, and commenting on videos.

The video, as means of business marketing is a relatively new thing, and people who get into it now will reap high benefits and profits. However, making just any video and using it on social media may have a little impact. For people who are serious about their businesses, a video made by professional video-making services like Pixability will take your business to an unimaginable height.

Why should you get professionals to make your videos when you can do it yourself? What are the benefits of hiring expert video-making services like Pixability to help make promotional videos for your social marketing projects? Pixability is a company dedicated to the business of developing, producing and promoting videos for the purpose of video marketing. They utilize experts and professionals in the field of online video marketing to help you organize videos that will speak directly to your audience and get your small business the promotion that it deserves.

At Pixability, they don't just make videos; they study your organization, its requirements, and audience base, so as to produce the right video and deliver it to the right audience to inspire the right response. To achieve this, Pixability features three packages that are well suited for all kinds of small businesses.

The Caffeine package is used for marketing, and managing online video portfolios and assets; the Espresso package is for kick-starting and accelerating already existing online video content; and the Mocha package is designed to create and market a complete online video portfolio with the production and utilization of 1 company overview and 20 industry expert videos.

These Pixability packages provide multiple options with all kinds of video marketing strategies according to your exact needs and budget. The company also helps small businesses and individuals with their cloud-based online video marketing software to help increase awareness and drive traffic. They provide full video analytics for websites and search engines; and video SEO for tagging, site maps and descriptions.

Another great benefit of using Pixability for promoting your small business with videos is their integration with the top social media sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and LinkedIn. This is by far the latest and most effective way to drive traffic to your business and reap huge profits. Pixability also helps provide video optimization and analytics, as well as YouTube channel management and reviews to help your website get to the first page of Google search engine rankings.

If you don't have any videos created, then Pixability can help you with that too. They offer professional video production from scriptwriting to coaching, sound and light, voice-overs, editing, studio-grade animation and motion graphics, all of which will contribute to set your online video social marketing apart from the usual crowd.

Small Brands Up Against Big Brands

Social media marketing for your small business

As a small business owner, you’re probably happy about where you currently are. You’re chugging along like a slow train, targeting mostly your family and friends and the local community, and you’re happy with the small amount of success your brand is getting. You don’t really want to make it big. You just want to relax and enjoy having a small business…

Or maybe not. As a small business owner, you probably dream about making it big. You want to be able to compete with the big brands, to become as well known as they are. Perhaps you want to become a big brand as well…

But you’re disheartened. How can you compete with the big corporations? How can your small business brand compare with these giants? They have unlimited capital, unlimited resources, and unlimited manpower. You’re practically a one-man (or woman) show, with maybe one or two employees. You’re up to the neck in debt since you borrowed money to start your small business.  Do you even have a chance of competing against these big brands?

The fact is, no matter what you do, you simply can’t compete with these big corporations on the same terms. As a small business brand, you aren’t capable of doing that because you just don’t have the means. But don’t lose hope, because there are other ways you can compete with them – it’s all about planning and strategy.

Here are some tips to help go up against the big brands:

     1. Offer value

Honestly, you can’t compete with the big guns in terms of price. You’ll just end up burying yourself, since people may think that the products and services you offer are not up to par with the big brands. Instead, always offer value – sure, your products and services may be a bit more expensive, but it’s because you’re offering something unique, worthwhile, and valuable to the consumers.

     2. Focus on what you do best

Maybe it’s customer service, maybe it’s storytelling, maybe it’s social media… but as a small business brand, you need to focus on what you do best in order to shine and be noticed. Don’t just copy what other businesses are doing. Focus on what makes you unique and the things you can best offer to people.

Providing excellent customer service is one of the best ways to reach consumers effectively. As a small business brand, you can ensure that someone always checks your email and answers your telephone line in order to address any customer’s concerns.

Storytelling on social media sites is another way you can stand out and be noticed. People love rooting for the underdog, and if you’re going up against a big brand, then you’re definitely one—so tell them the stories that will give them cause to sympathize or cheer. In short, tell them whatever will help them identify with you and wish for your success.

     3. Be more personable

As a small business owner, you can really represent your brand in a personal way that big corporations cannot. Show off your personality, put a face behind the name, go the extra mile for your customers. This really makes your small business brand stand out. Remember that people enjoy connecting and engaging with real people, not businesses. They want to know you, and become friends with you. They want to like and trust you.

People don’t just buy from anybody anymore. They’re a lot more vigilant when it comes to evaluating businesses, and they either love a brand or they hate it. When you become personable and likeable as a small business owner, you can really connect with your customers – they will definitely prefer talking to you over a big brand. After all when they contact a big brand, they usually just talk to a random, faceless,  nameless person.

     4. Utilize social media wisely

Social media is a great equalizer – it’s really changed the way people connect with brands, which is why both small and big business brands seem to have an equal chance in this regard. Sure, big brands may have the big bucks, but most social media platforms allow you to engage with your fans and followers for free – all you need to do is devote time and effort to your page.

Maintain a blog, create a Facebook and Twitter account, and don’t forget to update them regularly and interact with your audience using these platforms. Social media marketing is an excellent way to promote your small business brand, since a single update can spread like wildfire through these sites if it’s interesting enough.

Concluding Thoughts 

As you consider how to get ahead as a small business, don’t even try to compete with big corporations on their own turf… Without their money and resources, you can never win. Instead, offer value on the products and services that you sell, focus on what you do best, be more personable, and remember to use social media wisely. These are the simple ways small business brands can compete with the big guns.

Companies' Personal Connection as Influential as Friends'

For most brands of today, social media is “THE” place to be. It’s where most people are devoting their time nowadays, which is why small business brands are adding social media to their marketing mix in order to promote brand awareness and increase consumer engagement.

The main point in using social media in your marketing mix is to engage and connect with your audience. People don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements in Facebook or Twitter – they want to keep in touch with their friends, read interesting posts and updates, watch relevant videos, and get information about sales, specials and giveaways with regards to the brands they love.

As a small business owner, you’re definitely interested in how much you’re influencing consumers through social media. You want to know if you’re really increasing brand awareness, if your website is getting traffic from these platforms, and if it’s resulting in an increase of revenue for your business.

In a survey conducted by Market Force Information, they discovered that social content posted by brands are practically as influential as social content that are posted by friends. Social content is influencing consumers’ buying decisions, whether they’re posted by friends or brands.

The recent Market Force survey interviewed adults who are into social networking, and asked if they read comments, updates, tweets, and other social media content that were posted in the past 90 days by friends and brands they follow. The results showed that 81% of these people were influenced by their friends’ posts to purchase, while a comparatively high 78% were influenced by brands. This is very significant for businesses, both small and large.

Since companies and brands who are active in social media also wield a significant influence in consumers’ purchases, then there’s really no better time than today to ensure that you’re utilizing your social media platforms properly. As a small business owner, this is data that you can’t ignore – consumers want to connect with you on social media; they want you to influence their buying decisions.

The survey also shows that consumers are now seeking recommendations and checking reviews in social networking sites. This is where they try to obtain information about restaurants they want to try, retailers they want to buy from, and other products and services that they’re curious about. About 60% of those surveyed from the US say that they rely on brand feedback they read on friends’ social media posts, while in the UK, about half do this as well.

Some other revealing data: around 76% of US respondents regularly “like” the Facebook page of a business, with the most popular ones “liked” being those involved in food, travel, entertainment, finance and retail. This is comparable to 65% of UK respondents. Nearly half of these also follow the same businesses on Twitter. The main reason given by the respondents for following the brand on social media is to be updated on giveaways, specials, discounts and other incentives given by the business.

Perhaps the best part about brands in social media is the fact that it offers a two-way interaction between the business and its audience. Communication isn’t a one-way street anymore, and even the people in the audience can interact with each other within the platform. Your audience can reply to other people’s questions and comments, and this really helps in building a community around your brand.

Though having a social media account can also open you to criticisms and negative feedback, most brands find that having a social media presence really helps spread the word about their brand in a positive way. It offers an excellent way for the consumers of your small business brand to engage with you as well as with other clients and customers.

Rather than have people talk about your brand behind your back, it’s far better that they talk about you within a platform that you can monitor. This is what a social media presence helps you do. With the site, people can post both positive and negative feedback, and it really helps you discover what you can do to improve your brand and be able to answer any criticisms that come your way.

So don’t be afraid of social media. They’re currently the most popular platforms online that can help you promote your brand and increase revenue for your business. By ensuring that you have a social media presence, you can effectively connect and engage with your audience, and convince them to buy your products and services.

Are Pinners Purchasing?

The popularity of Pinterest has led many brands to utilize it for promoting their products and services. Though Pinterest hasn’t been on the scene for very long, it has quickly signed up millions of users, and is now the third most popular social networking site, just behind Facebook and Google. Though many people are devoting their time to the virtual pinboard, the question that most marketers want answered is: “Are pinners purchasing?”

Many websites and brands are seeing an increase in traffic from their Pinterest account, but the main question remains, does this traffic result in sales? In a study conducted by Vision Critical and Emily Carr University that involved 500 Pinterest users from the US, Canada, Australia and UK, they discovered a pretty high correlation between pinning and purchasing. It seems one out of five Pinterest users has pinned an item or product that they purchased eventually.

This is definitely a big discovery for brands. As a small business owner, you can’t ignore the reach of Pinterest, since it can potentially drive revenue. If you want to have a successful social marketing campaign, you need to utilize most of the tools at your disposal.

In another study by Shopify, they discovered that Pinterest users even spend more on average compared to their Facebook counterparts. Pinterest has become the third largest referral source to Shopify’s partner sites, with Facebook and Twitter continuing to lead. And Pinterest users also tend to shop more – they spend an average of $80 per order, which is double that of what they spend on Facebook.

Though Facebook continues to be the giant among social networking sites mainly due to the fact that it has the most number of users, Pinterest’s unique image-based site definitely offers a lot of potential for social marketing. Rakuten, an e-commerce giant based in Japan, recently made a $100 million investment on Pinterest. It plans to use the site together with the Rakuten ID, which is already being used by 75 percent of Japan’s population online, or roughly around 80 million people. This puts the value of Pinterest at $1.5 billion.

Though purchases may not be frequent and constant, still, brands can’t ignore the power that Pinterest holds nowadays. A significant number of people are raving about the site, using it to showcase the things they love, and sharing these things with their followers. Since this can translate to sales, it would be disadvantages for your small business to ignore Pinterest.

Even though pinners are purchasing, however, it’s important that you use Pinterest properly in order to increase the traffic to your site as well as increase sales. You can create pinboards of all the products you’re selling, but too much self-promotion can end up backfiring on you. So it’s important that you strike a balance between promoting your products and services, and sharing what you love on the site.

Mix and match what you post. Showcase your products with other things that complement them. Find unique ways to showcase the services you’re offering. If you sell make up for example, don’t just post pin pictures of your products – you can add make up tutorials, pictures of made up people that you like, and comparisons of what make up is best for day and for night.

Even if you’re someone who offers services, not products, you can make Pinterest work for you. As a lawyer, for example, you can showcase your advocacies through pictures. You can even show a bit of humor, since this lets people see you in a more personal way.

But of course, the real challenge is getting people to buy from you. Sure, it’s easy for people to follow your Pinterest account, join your contests, comment on your pinboards, like and share them on other social networking sites, and so on. But these things don’t always translate into sales.

Also, there remains the question: Are pinners purchasing what they pin, or are they pinning what they already decided to purchase? What comes first… the pin, or the plan to purchase? This is an interesting question to answer since it gives you an insight on what the users are doing. Does the pin come before the plan to purchase? Or the plan to purchase comes first before the pin?

If the pin comes first, then this can be really advantageous to brands. This means that people are pinning what they love, then they can’t resist purchasing. On the other hand, if the plan to purchase comes first, then it means that Pinterest may not exactly have anything to do with why the user is buying the product or service.

Truly, there is still a lot of uncharted territories with regards to Pinterest. As brands begin to learn what works on Pinterest or not, they can really come to engage their followers and increase their sales in the end.

Now We Can Measure Pinterest

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. It currently ranks third with regards to the number of users, with Facebook and Twitter the first and second, respectively.

Due to Pinterest’s increasing popularity, more and more brands – business and personal ones – are signing up and using the site for social marketing. After all, brands need to be where the people are, so that they can spread the word about their brand as well as engage and connect with people.

Since Pinterest is still a pretty new platform, many brands are wondering how to measure the success of their marketing campaign within the site. Unlike other popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, where there are already various ways to measure the ROI or success of your marketing campaign using the sites, the best way to measure the success of your Pinterest campaign remains elusive.

So how do you know if your Pinterest campaign is getting the results you want? How do you measure success? Is it enough to count the number of followers you have? Is it enough to see people liking and repinning your content? Can you already say that your campaign is successful?

Even if you answered yes to those questions, how can you be certain? As a small business owner, you have to ensure that you devote your time in the most lucrative way possible, so if you aren’t sure of the results of your Pinterest campaign, should you continue to devote time and resources to it?

Maybe not.

But don’t lose hope. Now there is something interesting that has come up to help you with this problem. A monitoring and analytics platform for sites involved in social curation, such as Pinterest, recently launched – and they’ve already signed up more than 150 brands and agencies.

Curalate is entering the scene at a perfect time – with the growing popularity of socially curated sites, brands really need to have the ability to measure the success of their social marketing campaign, otherwise, what’s the point of using the site, right?

What exactly does Curalate do?

Right now, it is the only available tool in the market that helps give brands a complete picture of how successful their campaign is in socially curated sites such as Pinterest. It uses a sophisticated mixture of proprietary image-recognition techniques and analytics to make you see how effective you are in engaging your audience. You gain insight on how your brand is influenced by your activities as well as your fans. Curalate is currently the only platform that is able to measure both first and third party actions – and this really gives it an edge over other platforms.

As a small business owner, you really want to make sense of social curation. You want to benefit from it, and that’s exactly what Curalate brings you – a way to monitor, measure, and help you grow your presence in socially curated sites.

Other social monitoring tools are effective when it comes to monitoring texts, but not when it comes to visuals. This is why Curalate really stands out – it helps you make sense of today’s visual platforms.

Within the site, you can easily review and respond to mentions of your brand. This helps you connect and engage better with your audience. What Curalate does is that it finds and consolidates all the conversations about you in one place, so it’s easy for you to reply to these mentions.

Curalate also helps you discover your fans and learn who your brand advocates are. These people are the ones who promote your brand and who can influence others to like your brand, so it’s very important that you learn who they are.

Another benefit the site offers is that it helps you identify what types of content are popular with users, so that you can plan your campaign effectively. After all, with socially curated sites, visual content is the most important.

It even gives you insights on your competition – Curalate gives you reports on how your curation efforts weight against those of your competitors. This is an excellent way to determine if you need to step up your campaign in order for your small business to succeed.

The best part is, Curalate shows you the complete picture, so you know which content is driving the most traffic to your site or store. This really helps you discover which area you need to focus on in order to promote your brand effectively.

Social curation is all the rage today, which is why brands need to have the ability to measure brand engagement as well as the success of their social marketing campaign. Curalate offers you that and more, so don’t hesitate and try their free trial now.

Pinterest and Your Small Business Service Brand

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. More and more brands are using it to effectively promote their products or services within the site. As a small business service brand, would it be worthwhile for you to sign up on Pinterest?

Well, it depends. Some small business service brands can be highly successful in promoting their brand on Pinterest, but there are others who may not garner the same success and may be better off promoting their brand elsewhere. So if you’re a brand who’s offering services, not products, should you consider social marketing on Pinterest or not? Here are some things you should think about:

     1. Do your services translate well visually?

There are certain small businesses that offer services that translate well visually. Photographers, for example, can effectively utilize Pinterest’s virtual pinboard by showcasing their best photos and shots. Wedding coordinators can create pinboards of the weddings they’ve organized, as well as other pictures that inspire them to organize wonderful weddings. These visual displays can help people learn more about your work and determine whether your services fit their requirements.

Lawyers, on the other hand, may not be able to promote their brand effectively on Pinterest. Sure they can create boards of the things they love and the things that inspire them, but it’s not going to let people know how effective they’re going to be in the courtroom.

So if the services you’re offering translate well visually, then definitely  consider promoting your brand on Pinterest.

     2. Is your target audience on Pinterest?

Majority of Pinterest users are women, so if your small business service brand caters to women more than men, then you should definitely consider adding the site to your marketing mix.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that if your services cater more to men, that you shouldn’t be on Pinterest. But you may have to think twice and consider other options so you can reach your target audience better.

     3. Are you willing to devote time on the site?

Just like other social networking sites, it’s important to devote time and effort to your page on the site, so that you build a good number of followers. You want to make things interesting for your audience, so you should regularly post, comment and reply to people, and make sure to follow, share and like other pinboards as well. You can’t build a following if you’re not going to update regularly and if you aren’t willing to devote time to interacting with your audience.

After you’ve considered these three things, here are some tips to help you market your small business service brand on Pinterest:

       • Too much self-promotion is a No-No

Too much self-promotion on Pinterest isn’t going to earn you points on it. Remember that it’s still primarily a social networking site, so it’s important that you make sure to share other things in addition to the services you’re offering.

What you can do is create interest in your services by sharing content that’s inspiring and based on a broader theme. This helps build a community around your brand, and doesn’t hint of over self-promotion.

       • Connect your Pinterest with your other social media accounts

To effectively convert buzz to bucks, you should definitely connect your Pinterest with your website, your blog, and your other social networking sites. This helps promote your page and drive traffic to your website. You want to direct people to the place where they can become your clients and avail of your services.

       • Be more personal

The best thing about Pinterest is the fact that you can show off who you are and what you love. Personalize your page – take the time to update the appearance of your Pinterest page so that it reflects who you are and what your brand is all about. And again, don’t be all about business – lighten up. Show people what inspires you and create boards that are funny and interesting. Social marketing is all about connecting with your audience, and the best way to connect with them is to show them the personal side of you.

Your small business service brand can definitely benefit from maintaining an account on Pinterest. So don’t be too quick on dismissing this popular medium. Pinterest is fast becoming an excellent platform for marketing small businesses.